THE PORTER’S WIFE Reviewed By Karen Dahood of Bookpleasures.com

Karen Dahood

Reviewer Karen Dahood :
Karen lives in Tucson, AZ. After 35 years as a writer for businesses
and nonprofits, she has turned to writing mysteries,the subtext of
which addresses ageism, unpreparedness for aging, and America's
wealth of experience and wisdom. Learn more about eldersleuth Sophie
George at the Website Moxie
Cosmos; Making Sense of Life Through Writing.

I feel very brave, having
just crossed the Atlantic by steamship in 1904.

THE PORTER’S WIFE is the
most realistic “crossing over’ story I have read. Prepare
yourself for several nights staying up late with this richly detailed
contrast of soot-stained, industrial England with fresh, new Ontario,
Canada, at the dawn of the Twentieth Century. The realism, with
painful details, is enormously valuable for readers addicted to
historical fiction. Yes, there is romance, but it is not romantic. It
is a woman’s story, with attention to feelings that matter as much
today as they did then: a mother alone and frightened, making
difficult decisions that will change her life and her children’s,
with no guarantees.

Lisa Brown sketched in the
background and events for Sarah Berry’s family while doing her own
genealogical research. Her fascinating notes range from the way poor
people were buried to the management of factories and tramways. She
manages to slow the pace to the hoof beat of the cart horse and
suspend time where there was no means of immediate communication. I
especially appreciated descriptions of transportation: the tedious
crisscrossing Manchester to deliver people by horse carriage; danger
in getting off the local tram ride in the dark; the steamship rolling
in rough seas and subsequent struggle to keep clean when people are
vomiting.

I
like her vivid reminders of how our lives are different now. We have
hygiene, welfare, and employee rights. When you emigrated in 1904
there was no turning back, no phone calls or Emails. A lucky
inheritance of fifty pounds took care of children for a while and set
up a business, but that was all you had – no social security – so
when someone shared a supply of fudge it was a very big deal, and if
you could sew beautiful clothes, it would save your life. If you had
relatives who paved the way, you could make it as long as you were
healthy.

Lisa Brown depicts social
attitudes convincingly in nuances of speech. She impresses us with
the gift of close friendships, so few, and often abruptly ended. She
has created a laudable heroine and introduced many characters that
would be worth getting to know better. The author’s command of the
language is remarkable. If the dialogue is a bit stilted in places
and the narrative at times seems didactic, I forgive her, for she
wants to share so much she found out about that period; I think she
inhabits it. I learned more than I ever did in history classes, and I
felt it, too. Lisa Brown succeeded in hooking me and I wait eagerly
for the sequel to THE PORTER’S WIFE, which she has promised.